Siemens new high performance VSD, the G220 is now out in the wild. This VSD will suit you if you want MORE than the G120 or G120c drives. If you want PLe Safety, longer cable lengths, top performance vector control, low harmonics, and easy commissioning – read on.
Some of you will have heard the team at CNC Design mention the G220 already, it started it’s release last year. But now we feel the drive is sufficiently far through it’s progressive feature release to appeal to the bulk of our customers.
What The G220 is Not
It is not the replacement of the G120. The G220 is a high performance VSD which sits between the G120 and a S120 AC/AC drive. Therefore it isn’t at the same price point as the G120. The G220 is the third release in the “Siemens Sinamics Next Generation” portfolio. (Also in this range is the S220 [power units only so far], S210 New, and S200 servo systems). In future a G210 will be released which will be the successor of the G120 – but not this year.
Why the G220
The features of the G220 we believe will provide the most value to our customers.
1. Basic and advanced safety to PLe
2. Basic safety via terminals doesn’t need commissioning, or manual testing – super fast setup!!!
FIGURE 1: Safe Terminals Pre-Enabled – Simply Replace Jumpers
3. Higher performance vector control – think vector control to S120 standard.
4. Controls high efficiency IE4/5 motors, such as synchronous reluctance or permanent magnet motors. (not servo motors, it does not do servo control)
5. High quality control down to very low speeds.
6. EPOS system installed
7. Drive Control Chart (probably by the end of the year) – for systems not used with a PLC.
8. Lovely built in colour HMI – similar look and feel to a standard form factor Simatic S71500 PLC built In HMI.
FIGURE 2: In Built Operator Panel / HMI
9. Web server for commissioning, from any web enabled device.
10. Fully integrated into TIA Poral V18 SP2 onwards.
11. S2 Redundancy (For our customers who buy Siemens S71500H PLCs from us).
FIGURE 3: Siemens NZ G220 has S2 Redundancy for use with H System PLCs
12. Long output cable runs – at least 150 metres for all frame sizes. Reduces the requirement for multiple electrical cabinets closer to motors or field mount drives.
13. A beautiful 5.5 inch ‘advanced operator panel’, which can network to multiple drives. Great for those of you who ask to connect an HMI directly to a drive without a PLC.
14. Drive Cliq interface to drive Cliq encoders, or SMCs to bring in hard wired encoders.
15. Super low harmonics (Total Harmonic Distortion of less than 3%) with the ‘clean power’ version. The Clean Power version also has a power factor of 1 in almost any load condition.
16. Built with IT security at it’s heart, with UMAC.
17. New sustainability properties applicable over the life cycle of the drive. (See future blog post on Sinamics New Generation Drives' sustainability initiatives)
18. IP55 version.
Drive Architecture & Options
The architecture of the G220 differs from the G120 in that the control unit is integrated into the drive, and the communication modules are interchangeable based on specific requirements. So if you have spares of Profinet versions, but could need a spare profibus VSD as well, just buy a spare communication board. No need for two separate drives.
The drive also has add on external device interfaces as below:
1. Drive Cliq (as mentioned above)
2. IIoT module – send a selection of 16 parameters to an edge processing system at 4kHz for drive train analysis on the fly.
3. Safe Motor Temperature – for reading temperature sensors on EX motors.
4. CM-PN – Communication Module Profinet (Supports Modbus TCP/IP & Ethernet/IP)
5. CM-PB – Communication Module Profibus – released end of this year.
FIGURE 4: Communication & Option Modules
Sinamics Next Generation Family
The G220 is a member of the Sinamics ‘Next Generation’ family of general purpose and servo drives by Siemens.
The key innovations across the ‘Next Generation’ range are :
1. PLe safety – for all but base model drives
2. Digital Native drives
- Have digital twins set up, for realistic offline commissioning.
- Allow high speed data transfer to edge processors for condition monitoring of both the drive, and the mechanical system it is actuating.
3. Common web server in each device - for diagnostics or commissioning.
4. Common engineering in TIA Portal.
5. Easier engineering by enabling one to enter and exit VSD / Drive setup wizards at any point. (You don’t have to click through to the end anymore).
Conclusion
If you see value in any of the features of Siemens most advanced VSD to date, give CNC Design a call for further information and pricing.
